Bring in Group B Strep Testing for all Women to Save Money and Lives, Urges Group B Strep Support

HAYWARDS HEATH, England, December 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

Group B Strep Support (GBSS), the charity for the UK's biggest cause of
life-threatening infection newborn babies, is urging the Government to make
sensitive testing for group B Streptococcus (GBS) available for all pregnant
women, as recent research shows this would save money as well as tiny babies'
lives.

GBS is found naturally in around 25 per cent of pregnant women and causes
no ill effects to most babies and their mothers. However, without
preventative medicine, around 700 babies in the UK contract GBS around the
time of birth, presenting as septicaemia, meningitis, or pneumonia. Of these,
75 will die while another 40 suffer ongoing health problems including
deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, and severe learning difficulties.
Antibiotics administered to Mum intravenously in labour are extremely
effective at preventing GBS infections in newborn babies.

Currently only a handful of UK hospitals offer pregnant women the
sensitive test for GBS - the Enriched Culture Method (ECM) test - that
involves taking a rectal and vaginal swab at 35-37 weeks of pregnancy. Most
mothers-to-be are forced to rely on a postal test available through a small
number of private laboratories[1].

Since 2003, the advice from the Royal College of Obstetricians &amp;
Gynaecologists has been to give antibiotics in labour to 'high risk women'
including those who have previously had a baby with GBS infection, who
develop a GBS urinary infection during pregnancy, or who present with
symptoms such as fever during labour. However, recent figures show that this
strategy has not lessened the number of newborn babies contracting GBS
infection. Indeed, figures from the Health Protection Agency show that
between 2003 and 2008, the number of babies contracting GBS infection in the
UK in the first 90 days of life actually rose by over 50% - from 311 babies
in 2003 to 470 in 2008. The 2009 figures confirm this increased number[2].

Now, new research[3] published in BJOG - an International Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology suggests that the NHS could actually make
significant cost savings by introducing ECM testing for all pregnant women at
35-37 weeks and offering antibiotics in labour accordingly. The authors found
that the cheapest preventative strategy would be to give antibiotics to all
women in labour, but this would carry major disadvantages, such as
medicalising childbirth and potentially increasing antibiotic resistance.
Excluding this option, they found that "screening based on culture at 35-37
weeks' gestation, with antibiotics given to all those women who deliver prior
to 35 weeks becomes the most cost-effective option." They calculated that the
risk factor approach currently used in the UK costs GBP50,000 per infection
prevented, but that this would fall to GBP45,000 if routine screening were
introduced (screening is more efficient because it prevents more cases). This
is a purely financial advantage, without taking into account the savings from
fewer babies needing intensive care, and without considering the distress to
parents who lose their baby when this could easily have been prevented.

Group B Strep Support, which has been campaigning for enriched culture
testing for approaching ten years, welcomed the report's findings. Chief
Executive Jane Plumb, who lost her newborn son to GBS infection, says, "It's
been obvious for some time that the Royal College of Obstetricians &amp;
Gynaecologists' risk-based guidelines are less effective than routine testing
in the number of babies saved and disability prevented. Now there is new
evidence that using the guidelines costs the NHS more than routine testing,
so what better time to bring in ECM testing across the board? It is surely
time for the Government to start thinking with its head as well as its
heart."

Another issue with the current policy is that, because tests are not
offered as standard, most women do not find out about GBS through their
healthcare provider. A recent survey by Bounty Parenting Club[4] found that
42% of women who are aware of GBS got information on GBS from a pregnancy
book or magazine while 21% were told about it by a friend or another mum.
Just 20% were informed by a midwife, 4% through their family doctor and
2% from a clinic at hospital. This means that even when women are willing
and able to pay for a private test, they are being denied that option by
not knowing about it.

Professor Philip Steer, Chairman of the GBSS Medical Advisory Committee,
says, "Proposals for high quality trials of screening in the UK have been
turned down because of lack of funding. In the meantime, other countries such
as the USA, Australia, Spain, Italy and Germany have all introduced screening
and seen major falls in the incidence of this deadly disease - in the USA by
70% since screening was introduced. I can see no reason why screening would
not be equally effective in the UK and we now know it would save money as
well as lives."

Notes to editors:

1. ECM tests for GBS are only readily available from a couple of private
laboratories in the UK and from a handful of NHS hospitals. Testing packs are
free, and a postal service for carrying out the test costs around GBP32 from
The Doctors Laboratory on +44(0)20-7307-7373 or gbs@tdlpathology.com. Group B
Strep Support receives no money from any laboratory. More information is
available at http://www.gbss.org.uk/test.

4. 2,226 interviews were carried out via the Bounty Word of Mum(TM)
research panel, ranging from women in the early stages of pregnancy to those
with a youngest child of two years old.

5. Group B Strep Support is a UK charity set up to prevent GBS infection
in newborn babies.

6. GBS is a normal bacteria carried by up to 30% of adults. It can be
passed from mother to baby during labour. For most babies this causes no
problems: for others it's deadly, causing blood infection and meningitis.

7. Most pregnant women have not heard of GBS. Please publish the
charity's web-site address: http://www.gbss.org.uk and/or telephone number
+44(0)1444-416176.

8. David Cameron MP when in opposition tabled three Early Day Motions
asking the Government to facilitate full implementation of the Royal College
of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' (RCOG) national GBS guidelines, and
urging the Department of Health to ensure reliable testing for GBS carriage
in pregnancy is urgently made available on the NHS.